Former Employee - Technical Business Development Specialist in Livermore, CA

Former Employee - Technical Business Development Specialist in Livermore, CA

I worked at Sandia

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Approves of CEO

Doesn't Recommend

Negative Outlook

Approves of CEO

Pros

Sandia has great talent among the scientific and business staff. These are people who are thought leaders, creators, inventors and innovators. Unfortunately, great talent gets tapped to be management, which is not really a promotion.

Cons

Management seems to operate in a vacuum, with the most pervasive attitude based on CYA. Afraid to take ownership and a leadership role, the vast majority of mid-level management is just towing the corporate line and promoting what their superiors tell them to do, acting out the very definition of government bureaucracy. Ineffective, unoriginal and very demoralizing to the technical and business staff.

Advice to Management

Start taking on some accountability and risk. Innovation is non-existent because managing doesn't want to be perceived as original content thinkers or outside-the-box creators. And stop promoting high performing staff into managemt roles with little or no training. Great technical staff rarely make great leaders and managers without experience or training.

Current Employee - Principal Member of Technical Staff in Livermore, CA

Current Employee - Principal Member of Technical Staff in Livermore, CA

I have been working at Sandia full-time (More than 3 years)

Recommends

Neutral Outlook

No opinion of CEO

Recommends

Neutral Outlook

No opinion of CEO

Pros

Interesting work, lots of freedom, good job security, flexibility to move around the company, ability to work from home, low pressure, many smart and capable co-workers, flexible 9/80 work schedule

Cons

No/limited bonuses, relatively low morale at the CA site, performance review is not done well and can be discouraging (they rank all employees a la Microsoft), writing research proposals is a time sink and not very rewarding (esp LDRD process)

Advice to Management

Rethink performance review, make LDRD process more collaborative with management.

Work-life balance definitely favors the life side, starting pay for both interns and entry level pay is good, get to chose your projects and work on multiple ones, *can* get every other Friday off. Very good if you want to focus in research.

Cons

Hard to get a full time position without a PhD. Company has all behavioral interviews ... can lead to underqualified overqualified peers. Needs US Citizenship for any full time job, they just opened internships up for foreign nationals this year. Work seems to be very polarized, either cutting edge tech or menial work. Projects depend on external funding, so if your project is axed, then you find another project (who'll take you) or get laid off...

The people there are amazing, and they really care about making sure you learn and succeed if you work there as a student intern. The science and engineering departments are top-notch and it's in honor to work with them. They also offer extended education programs for qualifying individuals.

Cons

The management is a bit bureaucratic since it's a federally funded lab, but eventually you get used to it. The management can be fairly easy-going as long as you follow the rules and know what you are doing.

Opportunities for promotion are extremely limited for someone with a B.S. Because of a lack of higher degree, technical work is handed down at a minimum. Also, below average pay for non-PhD staff. Salaries constantly frozen or cap is reduced.